[Vision2020] Attempt to Revive Day Care Standards Fails

[Tom Hansen]

The same individual that is attempting to drastically reduce health care 
benefits to state retirees does not support "minimal standards for smaller 
Idaho day care centers, including criminal background checks for workers."

That individual is our state governor Butch Otter.

Don't blame me.  I didn't vote for him.

>From today's (March 26, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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Attempt to revive day care standards fails 
Betsy Z. Russell 
Staff writer
March 26, 2008

BOISE – Senate Democrats tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to revive 
legislation to require at least minimal standards for smaller Idaho day 
care centers, including criminal background checks for workers.

"There are some issues that rise above the partisan divide," Sen. Elliot 
Werk, D-Boise, told the Senate. "This is exceedingly important to the 
public, exceedingly important in terms of the safety of our children. … 
This is a critical bill to the people of the state of Idaho."
 
Small day care centers – those with fewer than seven children – currently 
go unregulated by the state, though a half-dozen Idaho cities, including 
Coeur d'Alene, have enacted their own day care licensing laws. The bill, 
SB 1376, would have set standards for centers with four or more unrelated 
children.

But the Senate Democrats' move fell short on a party-line vote. A similar 
move to revive an ethics bill that would require a one-year "cooling-off 
period" before former state officials could switch to private-sector 
lobbying suffered the same fate. Both bills remain in Senate committees, 
where the committee chairs haven't chosen to schedule further proceedings 
on them.

GOP senators defended the system that allows committee chairmen to block 
bills from further consideration. Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, 
said, "Part of the power and part of the responsibility of being a 
committee chairman is to set the agenda."

Said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, "We simply do not have enough time to 
hear every bill and to vote on every single bill."

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, has been working on the day care 
licensing bill for several years. Last year, it was killed in a House 
committee as representatives declared that mothers should stay home with 
their children. This year, the measure received a hastily scheduled 
hearing in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee after several delays, 
but only after a Senate co-sponsor agreed to then withdraw the bill for 
revision over the summer.

Senate Health and Welfare Committee Chairwoman Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, 
told the Senate, "This particular bill needed more work. … This bill needs 
to stay where it is in committee for this year, and give the sponsors the 
opportunity to work on it so that it is what it says it is."

Lodge said the fiscal note on the bill was incorrect.

Senate Democrats tried a rarely used parliamentary maneuver to yank both 
bills out of committees to the full Senate. But in both cases, all 27 
Senate Republicans voted against the moves, while just the seven Democrats 
voted in favor. Several senators said even though they supported the 
bills, they wouldn't vote to override committee chairmen. 

Sen. Kate Kelly, D-Boise, told the Senate, "Idaho is ranked last in the 
nation in protecting the safety of children in day care centers."

Said Sen. David Langhorst, D-Boise, "I hope after today there's enough 
support on both sides of the aisle that work can finally be done on this 
issue."

The bill, which had 14 legislative co-sponsors from both parties, would 
have required criminal background checks, set a minimum age of 18 for day 
care operators and set basic health and safety requirements, such as 
banning smoking, drinking and loaded guns on the premises during day care 
operating hours. It also would have required that pools or ponds be 
fenced, set minimum child-staff ratios, and required one person on the 
premises to be CPR certified. 

Sayler said earlier, "I honestly think it's a good bill. … It has some 
philosophical opposition, but realistically it will do a much better job 
of protecting children without imposing much of a burden on anyone."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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